Feminism In Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

In fourteenth century, women were not valued near as much as men were. Not much respect was giving to women and girls. Men often considered them week, unintelligent, and unable to do anything. Women often had controlled lifestyle and had inadequate freedom. Living under the unfair condition, women’s rights were encroached. Thus, there was a group of people, feminists, stepping forward. Feminists are who advocate of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the genders. Although in fourteenth century, owing to the culture, there were few feminists really initiated feminist movement via physical way, most of them showed the idea of feminism by literature. Based on the Wife of Bath’s Tale, which is one of the story in the Canterbury Tales written by the famous English poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, Chaucer can be regard as a feminist because he confers characteristics that traditional women lacked to the hag, believes what women most desire is sovereignty, and endows female characters in the Wife of Bath with sovereignty. Chaucer confers

In the Wife of Bath, at the beginning of the tale, the queen successfully obtains the actual power of execution of the knight from the king. The queen can control the knight’s life. This can be said that the queen sovereignty on the knight. In fourteenth century, it is difficult to imagine that a woman can control a man’s life. In later part of the tale, after the knight marry the hag, the hag offers the knight a choice: either he can have her be ugly but loyal, or he can have her young but unfaithful. The knight leave the right to choose to the hag and let the hag to make the decision. This means that the knight give the complete sovereignty to the hag. Because the knight gives the hag what she most desired, the sovereignty to choose, she becomes both young and beautiful. In the case of the queen and the hag, they both receive sovereignty over